Instrumental conditioned reflexes with sexual reinforcement in rats.

The purpose of the present work was to elaborate a method of investigation of the instrumental CRs with sexual reinforcement. The examination of such reflexes in various experimental situations gives more precise information about sexual drive levels than simple observation of sexual behavior. Moreover, this is the only way for obtaining exact data concerning the changes in the drive level in females during the mating behavior. As in natural conditions the intervals between copulations, which can be treated as the indicator of these changes, are imposed by the male. There is a small number of findings concerned with instrumental 1968) in comparison to those which concern instrumental alimentary or defensive reflexes. Therefore, a comparison between unconditioned ali-mentary and sexual reflexes seems desirable and scientifically interesting. Both reflexes belong to the group of preservative reflexes (Konorski 1970). While the biological role of the unconditioned alimentary reflex is preservation of individual life, the sexual reflex is responsible for continuation of the life of the species. In both unconditioned reflexes two components are observed: the drive and the consummatory responses. For the unconditioned alimentary reflex the drive is hunger, manifested by behavior directed to reach food and the consummatory reaction is the act of food digesting. The sexual drive is manifested in two forms, as behavior directed to the act of copulation (the so called detumescence drive), or as the behavior directed to a close contact with an animal of the opposite sex (so called-contactive drive). For the detumescence